The issue with prostitution is a shaky one at best. On the hand, while I do consider it immoral, if a person is doing out of their own free will it is their choice. After all, a lot of women and men get paid lots of money to do the same thing in the porn industry. However, a big problem with illegal prostitution is that a lot of women are forced against the wills into this. A lot of times it can be young children also. Not to mention, prostitution usually take place in very unsafe environments where there is high risk of passing off diseases, unwanted pregnancies, possible rape, and overall complete mistreatment of women. Would actually legalizing prostitution solve these issues? Somehow I really doubt it.
How can you define what constitues "free will" on their part though? Perhaps the women are so far in debt to there.. pimp? owner? that they have no choice but to "work." I just don't see a way you can be sure that you know women are working through their own free will. It's a shady line that can open Pandora's box if left alone.
I think that the typical "pimp" who does such shady and abusive things should be forced out of the business as part of the process of legitimizing the business - the same way they force bad people out of other legit businesses. And these pimps should probably be in jail in many instances. "Pimps" should be more like "brokers" or "managers", similar to that guy in Nevada on the HBO series who owns and runs that famous bordello.
I agree, prostitution should be legal. It's a shame that people are forced into it without their will, though. Even if prostitution is banned, people would still continue to do it.
Yes, banning it is making it harder for people to get into prostitution, but it also encourages them to seek "refuge" or easier ways out like these gangs and pimps, and that is what's making it worse. It's legal in Amsterdam, and highly regulated so people don't need to do illegal things with even worse consequences just to get by.
I can't agree that prostitution is legalized really, selling our body - more specifically sex - cannot ever be considered something legal or dignifying of our human condition.
Legality is a construct created by us humans. We can choose to make it legal or not. I agree that it doesn't seem dignified, but neither does cleaning waste (no offense to custodians and janitors out there). Someone's gonna/gotta do it. Anyway, the selling of pleasure has been long prevalent -- cavemen did it. Our ancestors did it. The laws of nature encourage it, even. I know there's a specie of penguins that give pebbles in exchange for a spouse and there's been an experiment in which monkeys were taught the concept of money where they would engage in prostitution for their form of money.
mmmaske is right. Imo, as long there are willing participants who agree to exchange money for certain services that is actually located on the person themselves (genitals) and not illegal under normal circumstances, it will be very hard to ban. However, if prostitution is legalized, it can be regulated which makes illegal and unhealthy practices much easier to spot. With regulation, we can 1) prevent prostitution of underaged children or illegal immigrants (with legitimate prostitution businesses in place, it will be easier and much more justified for authorities to crack down on 'illegal prostitution' and it will also cut off the demand of illegal prostitution as customers flock to legal institutes where they will not risk high penalties or jailtime) 2) mandate health checkups and use of protection to reduce spread of STDS (this in turn, would significantly deter illegal prostitution as it'll be a case of low risk of STDS vs high risk of STDS) 3) prevent prostitutes from being abused or exploited by their pimps, ensuring a higher living standard for them 4) by making this a legitimate job market for people willing to engage in this line of work, we are also able to provide career counseling and give advise so that those men and women have all the information about the line of work they are getting into, together with all the pros and cons. The career counselors could also present them with alternatives to prostitution which they might not have known about. This is to enable them to make an informed choice about their career choices and not have their life ruined just because of a spur of the moment bad decision.
I just can't believe that this is such a shock to everyone. This is the oldest profession in the world and, they have always targeted teenagers to exploit. These pimps are smart and, very well organized. Unfortunately, our justice system has not caught up with all the digital and electronic ways for pimps to target these girls and, set up dates with people like with this Super Bowl ring. Instead of acting so shocked about it lets stop not talking about it and, get the wors out to educate our young ones to stay away from pimps.
This is very sad that this is going on. I believe more needs to be done about this. And the biggest issue for me is that there a minors being dragged into this.
